


Ascending Sideways

by KoiFishGarden



Category: Marvel
Genre: Dimension Travel, Gen, Officer Gray appears in one chapter, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Tags May Change, should she even be included?, sprinkle of other original characters
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 18:47:59
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 3,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26363671
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KoiFishGarden/pseuds/KoiFishGarden
Summary: Teagan's having a pretty bad day.
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	1. A Start

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is really short. Oh well, throws random snipit out into the open.

The shot had entered through her stomach and out the other side splattering blood and carnage up the side of the white brick wall behind her. Her blouse was utterly ruined, white fabric eating up the slick substance. Her back hit the bricks while she brought her arms up to hold herself in, but the blood just seeped through her finger staining her sleeves. Her soon to be killer stared dully gun pointed at her as she slid slowly down the wall. There was nothing to be done but accept the cold sinking into her bones. He just stood there and watched, face unchanging as she started to gurgle on her blood. It filled her lungs up, burning them, and drowning her. She should crawl away, call for help, try to live, but it was no use, the black was pulling her down. She couldn’t struggle, just accept. Her mom was going to miss her. Maybe she’ll see her dad. The cold gave way to a sinking pull as the world dropped away and with a last breath, Teagan died on the concrete bleeding out from a gunshot.

But far away something shifted and with a pop, her universe cracked a bit. Something had broken and with it, Teagan’s world gained cracks and holes. One of which an almost dead Teagan falls through. So Instead of dying on the concrete, Teagan bleeds out into the space between worlds.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I kinda know where this is going... not really though. Not like anyone is gonna read this, lol.


	2. Another State

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teagan runs into someone else in a different place.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Throws out another really short snipit the next day.

There's nothing where she lands. A place built of nothing where nothing should be. But she's there. Floating. Bits and pieces of other places snapping in and out of view. Her body shivering as the oppressive void snaps at her, digging in and eating her up till nothing but the thought of her exists. Her very soul bending and stretching as it tries to survive against the oppressive forces. 

Something else falls through a different crack, it howls in panic and pain as it too is eaten away. But it struggles, and in its struggles, it collides into what's left of Teagan. Pushing them both toward another place and through a crack as it snaps in and out of view. 

They bounce off a wall and hit the concrete hard. Teagan’s limp form squishing her savior, knocking them out completely. She lays there on top of them, both are bodiless fractured beings. They lay still as the world around them shivers and bends at the formless outliers that had entered from outside its bounds. A few minutes of quiet nothing as the world turns itself over patching cracks and filling holes till finally, with a pop, Teagan and her savior realign into something realized. They become a part of the world and hold forms again. They lay there breathing in and out as the world settles down again, oblivious of where they had landed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, apparently someone did find this and now I know I like comments. Hint hint nude nude.


	3. After Something

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teagan wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh, look! another day another chapter! yah... don't expect this from me latter. But here you go, another 300 words.

Teagan didn’t expect to wake up, or if she did it would be to a white ceiling surrounded by the beeping of medical machines. Instead, there's a red brick wall right in front of her face and she’s not in pain, she should be in pain. Then it hits her, radiating out from her stomach, making her curl in tight. It's not just her stomach, it's her whole body and something more. She isn’t herself, she can feel another and they’re suffocating under something. She’s suffocating.

With a painful jolt, Teagan pushes off the ground and scrambles away from what's under her. The relief is immediate, she can breathe again, they can breathe again. Though her whole body feels like one big bloody bruise she turns to where she was laying. A lump of fur is curled against the concrete.

A cat.

She can feel the cat, its breathing, its pain, and a foggy haze of what she thinks is a dream. She can feel everything. She can feel everything. The concrete howls at her, the wall shrieks, and her body screams as the world sings. Teagan can feel everything. There's so much noise. She wants it to stop. It's not stopping! She doesn't want to be here, it's too loud, everything's trying to grab her attention. Everything but the cat, the cat’s quiet, it's not screaming, crying, or singing, it's just breathing. Breathing with her. Teagan crawls to it, cards her fingers through its fur, pushes her face into its belly, and just breaths. The noise around her drops to a low hum as she lays there letting her hands card through the cat's fur. Feeling her fingers part every strand. It pulls her down to a foggy haze and muffles the noise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The next chapter is already planned and essentially typed up. Its also twice as long so chapters are probably gonna be longer in the future.


	4. Abject Sadness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teagan figures stuff out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 4! This chapter doubles the word count. I feel proud about that. My goal is that all future updates are this long. Anyway next chapter will be up Monday, be back then!

She feels weightless. Independent from everything but not alone. The cat’s there purring under her fingers. Breathing. And she's fine breathing alongside it. In and out, in and out, in and out. Teagan lifts herself off the ground. Her body hurts but she’s not dead. Her blouse is covered in a slick black that trails down her front, staining her jeans and marking the gray concrete below her. It's everywhere and it's distinctly not blood. She pulls the shirt up and inspects her belly. There's no guts or blood spilling out but it's hard to see past all the black. 

Turning back to the cat, Teagan takes a few more breaths to steady herself. The world’s still noise around her but she can cope with it. She can’t remember hitting her head but all the noises could be something else. She still has her purse on her and the cat’s not going anywhere soon. Tipping out the contents of her purse shows that it only holds her phone, ID, and MasterCard. A quick look at her phone tells her that it has power but no cell service. Teagan does a double-take at that, she's in new york, how do you just lose service in New York? Her ID and MasterCard are funky looking though and quickly pull her attention away from the phone. The ID has lost all its golden background stuff and her image is gone. All the text has changed. Her name, her birthday, even her eye color are represented by zeros. Her ID has turned into a white, zero-filled card. And her master card. It's lost all its numbers and stuff too, but instead of zeros, everything is just gone, replaced with a completely blank black card. Teagan shoves the cards back into her purse and tries not to think about it. Instead, she goes back to the phone and flips it over. Yep, the apple is gone. Opening it proves to be unfruitful. All her apps have vanished and the wallpaper’s wiped. She feels dizzy. 

After breathing at the cat some more Teagan goes back to continue investigating. Her blouse is the same along with her boots, socks, jeans, and a quick look confirms her underwear is fine. But her skin certainly is not. It's like someone bleached her. Her beige skin has disappeared along with all the freckles that adorned her arms replaced with a pasty white that turns her into a porcelain doll. She's getting a little hysterical. Closing her phone to stare at her reflection tips her over into uncontrolled giggles. Her hair is a sooty black that saps up all the light instead of a bouncy brown and it's been shorn as if someone ripped it away from her. It's her eyes that throw her into tears. Instead of the pooling blue reflections of water that remind her of her dad, her irises have been eaten up by the inky black that makes up her pupils. She shakily drops the phone into her bag. Teagan then just lays down and curls around the cat. Her mind is in a tizzy and she doesn’t want to think. So instead she breathes in and out with the cat. In and out, in and out, in and out.

The cat calms her down through the rise and fall of emotions hitting her. It muffles the noise around her and her sobs as she stays pressed against its fur. The cat is also what motivates her to move once the emotions have all spewed out alongside the tears now sitting in its fur. She can feel it waking up in the back of her mind. Feel its confusion and curiosity that quickly turns into fear as it struggles in her grip. She ready let's go waiting for it to run. But as quickly as the cat is to start off she feels the moment it realizes the noise of the world and comes scampering back. Everything is just a dull hum to her and the cat feels this. Dull quiet empty is better than the beating hum and screeches of the world around them. The cat quickly scampers back in between her arms right against her chest and shivers. Teagan can feel its mind against hers so she tries to project calm and soothing feelings. It must be working because after a few minutes the cat loosens. It's still stiff and scared but it's not rigid and ready to attack everything anymore. 

Teagan lets go of a long tense sigh. It unlocks her muscles and relaxes her around the cat now that she knows her only support won't just disappear. The cat feels the shift in her and uncoils a bit to smell her. It’s still curious but the sharp terror it felt before has been placated into a dull suspicion. Teagan let out a breathless hello, quiet and timid as not to scare it more before shifting her hand to the collar adorning its neck. The collar is a soft worn black leather that stands out stark against its fluffy white fur, the tag it holds proudly pronounces the cat's name to be Dexter. 

Teagan smiles and quietly whispers Dexter’s name before letting go and running her fingers over his fur some more. Dexter quite likes the feeling and softly purrs, all the tension easing out of him. Teagan feels like purring too. Dexter's calm is filling her up and she can tune out all the noise that had previously been causing her so much panic. Teagan settles into the feeling along with the cat.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was originally two but after finding out a average chapter for a book is 3,000 words I decided keeping them together works better. So instead of twice as long as previous chapters this one is three times as long. 
> 
> Fingers crossed this fishy keeps swimming.


	5. Accompanying Shift

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teagan has some weird stuff happen around her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here you guys go.

It takes her a while but eventually, Teagan comes back from wherever her mind went off to. She had shifted upward and is now kneeling with Dexter sprawled over her legs. He’s still purring and has the consistency of a limp noodle. Her legs feel numb and she's probably been sitting for too long. After probing Dexter with a finger, he shifts and looks up at her all sprawled out and cute, perfectly content to just lay there. Teagan on the other hand has to get home. It was late the last time she checked her phone and she has work tomorrow. After she swings her bag's shoulder strap on, Teagan picks up Dexter in her arms and starts walking.

It's a ten-minute walk to get from the bar to her apartment and she should already be halfway there. She walks this way home after every outing with her friends. She should be at the door already walking in after grabbing the key from under the fern where she leaves it because drunk her would just lose it. Instead, she's walking back and forth in front of a bakery where her apartment complex should be trying not to look at her arms or notice the lack of hair brushing against her neck.

It takes a good half hour wandering around till Teagan finally admits defeat. She’s sitting on a bench in the corner of a park she’s pretty sure shouldn't exist rocking back and forth with Dexter in her arms when reality starts to hit her again.

She should be dead in one of the only alleys near her apartment. Instead, she's silently balling her eyes out at a park in the middle of the night. Her coloring is all off and she has a cat in her arms. A surprisingly heavy cat that makes her wish she could just fit him in her purse. She doesn't want to be walking around like a loon covered in black gunk carrying a cat.

The noises she had been hearing suddenly wined out high and strong and make her tense. Dexter tenses as well. Something had to have happened to cause the pop in sound, but a few seconds of anxious waiting leads to nothing. The sound has gone and she relaxes slightly, getting up to leave the park. A pull on her shoulder stops her movement suddenly and she falls back down onto the bench. Teagan scrambles sideways fast and scared, ripping away from the weight on her shoulder. Her effort is met with a loud rip and a sudden release of said shoulder. It drops her to the ground and drives her to scramble backward. Desmond had hopped off her lap in the tussle and was puffed up beside her as she looked to see what had grabbed her. A bag laid on the bench one of its straps hooked around a plank making up the bench. 

A swift touch of her shoulder led to nothing being there. Puzzled Teagan stands up and silently treads closer, muscles tense and ready to run. Her steps are met with nothing and tentatively poking the bag is also met with nothing. Dexter hops up on the bench making Teagan lurch back, but still, nothing happens. Picking the bag up shows it to be harmless, so Teagan opens it up only to drop it. Inside are her janky looking phone and cards.

Checking her side proves her purse missing. Picking up the bag again still does nothing so Teagan fiddles with it. It has two back straps, one of them ripped and is big enough to fit Dexter nicely. It's also the same black material her purse was. Dexter makes a curious noise pulling Teagan's attention back to the cat. He looks at her and makes the trill again. Teagan holds the bag out for him to smell and after a few seconds of smelling it, he jumps in it. Teagan jolts before steadying herself and just stares at Dexter making himself comfy. His blase attitude settles her worry though and with nothing jumping around to kill her or the cat, Teagan slips the remaining shoulder strap on. The bags a bit lopsided without the other strap, but Dexter doesn't complain.

After a bit of awkward standing, Teagan feels ready to move again. It's starting to turn light so maybe she can find someone to help her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked it!


	6. Authority Services

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Teagan goes to the police.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> New chapter! This one was interesting to write.  
> Also, first marvel character appearance! lol, she doesn't have a ao3 tag.  
> Anyway hope you like!

Trying to find any of her friend’s apartments proves fruitless. She can’t call anyone, she doesn’t even remember her phone number. Down to no options, a little frantic, and very desperate for some kind of help, Teagan tries to find the police station.

The police station ends up easy to find. It's almost exactly where it was before, just on the other side of the street. For how everything else has been disappearing, this is a blessing.

Inside the station is quiet. It's the dead hour of the day so a light shift cover is to be expected. What isn't expected is the change in uniform color. Teagan could have sworn that the NYPD had black uniforms. It's a little disconcerting that the police are also affected by whatever's been happening to her.

The officer manning the front desk is in all blue, her tag announcing her name as Gray. She's also slumped over a computer typing away and doesn't look up at Teagan.

“Hello, what can I do for you?”

Teagan stares at Officer Gray for a bit, unsure of what to say. She’s been shot, skin bleached, shorn, and thrown into the twilight zone. Any sane person would call her crazy, which might be true, so instead of talking Teagan keeps staring at Officer Gray.

Said officer after not getting an answer, looks up, promptly takes in a disheveled Teagan, and bursts out “Is that paint?” in surprise.

At the exclamation Teagan looks down at her blouse, she'd forgotten about that. The black stuff has dried and hardened, gluing her blouse to the front of her chest. She shrugs at the officer in lieu of an answer.

This spring's Officer Gray into action, calling back to someone named Tyler before scampering around the desk to her.

“Hey sweetie, can I touch you?”. Teagan tilts her head at the question before nodding. Officer Grey gently tugs Teagan and leads her to sit in a chair at another desk more inside the station. Teagan can feel a hum coming off Officer Gray, she sounds different from everything else Teagan's encountered so far.

“Can you tell me your name?”. Teagan tilts her head again before saying “Teagan”, her voice comes out scratchy.

Officer Gray taps quickly at the desk’s computer before another officer, presumably Tyler though his tag reads as Thompson, swiftly walks over to them. Officer Gray asks Officer Thompson to retrieve a pair of sweats then turns back to Teagan.

Thompson’s presence hums like Gray’s.

The following minutes are filled with questions that make Teagan starkly aware that Officer Gray thinks she’s been raped. It's not what happened but it could have. Instead, she was shot because she struggled. Teagan stops verbally responding after the first couple of inquiries, reverting to nods and shrugs that disappoint Gray. The officer is really only able to get her name and address.

Officer Thompson interrupts by coming back holding a gray sweatshirt and sweatpants, handing them over to Teagan. She scoots back into the chair but takes the given clothes. Teagan opens up her bag revealing Dexter who the cops blink at before she slides the clothes in and zips the bag back up. Officer Thompson shifts a bit before stating there's a bathroom around the corner.

Teagan stays seated.

She shouldn’t be here. She needs help but the cops can’t help her, why did she even walk in here? Oh yeah, no one else around. The thought makes her shiver and loop her hands around her chest.

“Teagan, you need to tell us what's wrong for us to help you”

“I got shot”, It comes out quick and garbled but still clear. The admission also causes Teagan to curl tight into herself. She's not crazy. She just wants to pass out on her bed and sleep for a week.

Officer Gray bolts up at the admission. “Shot!” she exclaims, scrambling wildly around the desk to kneel in front of Teagan “Where!”.

Teagan curls tighter, fingers digging into her sides, “my stomach”. Officer Gray immediately shuffles to pull her arms away but Teagan scoots the chair back. “it's not there anymore, it’s not there anymore, it’s not there anymore” Teagan repeats over and over bursting into tears, backing away more every time Officer Gray advances.

“Teagan, sweetie, you need to let me look”.

Teagan keeps on crying, she's not ready to be called insane. She doesn't want to be discounted. She can hear the hum of Thompson moving away as officer Gray tries to persuade her. He's going to a phone.

This jostles Teagan into action. She shoves off the chair and pushes around Officer Gray, skittering out of the police station. Her sudden action startles Gray into inaction and makes Dexter merp. She's out and gone by the time Officer Gray gets off her knees to chase.

Teagan’s frantic running leads her to random twists and turns down streets. She runs until her lungs burn and the tears stop. When Teagan finally looks around at her surroundings she's funnily enough in the park again. This sets her off into a set of giggles that promptly die when Dexter makes a trill from inside her bag. She opens the bag to let Dexter out and he goes right to her lap and purrs. She can feel his concern and questioning. He was silent throughout her debacle with the police and was overall a very patient cat. Teagan hums a bit then pets him.

She needs to sort her thoughts out so she talks at Dexter. She spills her worries and fears and tries to figure out what to do next. Dexter just sits and purrs, his curiosity dying as she talks to him. It's calming and by the time she's done gushing out everything at Dexter she knows what she needs to do. She needs to help herself.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Anyone else know Officer Gray? She's from the Gwenpool comics. They're good and I recommend a read.


End file.
